One Million

Chapter Nine

Sorry this took so long to come out! I've been wholly invested in my novels 😅 thanks for reading!

~Raita-san

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"And that's my win!" Skylar said, sitting back in the chair.

"How are you so good at shoots and ladders?" Flicker said in frustration. "You won five times in a row! That's hardly fair. Are you cheating?" Skylar chuckled.

"And how does one cheat in shoots and ladders?" Flicker frowned.

"You have a point." He said.

"What should we play next?"

"Something I know I can win in." Flicker muttered and Skylar laughed.

"Hey guys." Skylar turned around at the sound of Ryan's voice.

"Ryan! How was-" Skylar stopped mid sentence. She knew the look on Ryan's face. It was the look her father had when he came home from a long day before he began drinking. He was an angry drinker and would often take out his anger by yelling and breaking things, but he never laid a hand on Skylar or her mother.

"Sorry I had to leave you two up here." Ryan said, settling on the couch beside Flicker.

"It's no problem boss." Flicker said. "Skylar was just showing me her affinity for board games."

"Oh really now?" Ryan cocked an eyebrow and looked at Skylar. Skylar could tell that he was trying to appear engaged but his mind was obviously elsewhere. "Hey Flicker, I need to talk to you for a minute."

"Sure thing." Flicker stood and followed Ryan into the bedroom. Skylar sat and strained to listen to the conversation.

"SNK's making moves and I don't like it." Ryan said. "The spies are finding it harder to move and so information is limited. They know about Skylar and about the deal. I have a feeling they will try to interfere. Ever since my brother stepped down they have been more active."

"They think you're weak." Flicker said. "We need to show them that you're just as strong of a leader as your brother. We need to make moves ourselves or we will find them banging down on our door." Ryan sighed.

"You're right." He said. "We need to get some information on them. We have a randevu with an informant tomorrow. We will hopefully have some up-to-date information after that. We are still the larger and stronger group. They won't do anything too dramatic for a while at least." And with that, the conversation was over. Skylar quickly grabbed the deck of cards that lay on the table and pretended to be engrossed in shuffling them.

"Sorry about that Sky." Ryan said. He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. Skylar put the cards down.

"What time is it?" Skylar asked. Ryan glanced at his phone.

"Almost eight." He said with a sigh.

"What do you think of a party tonight?" Flicker asked. Ryan rolled his eyes.

"You know I won't say no to that." Ryan said with a smile. Flicker clapped his hands.

"Great! I'll tell the boys to bring their girls and their friends." Ryan chuckled.

"You know the boys will be mad if there aren't a fuck ton of women." Flicker nodded.

"I know, just leave it to me."

"What do you drink?" Ryan asked, turning to Skylar.

"Anything is fine." She said with a smile. Ryan frowned.